“Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone?”
- Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman on the committee’s investigation into nearly nine billion dollars of unaccounted-for funds which were shipped to Iraq, in cash, between May 2003 and June 2004.

Despite providing education about the dangers of drunk driving, Ithaca College’s lack of a weekend night shuttle bus for students doesn’t help the situation. Because the TCAT’s schedule provides very limited night access, students often find themselves without transportation back to the campus from the Commons and Collegetown. Ideally, students would carpool, finding a designated driver before their night begins. In practice, however, students under the influence might find themselves more inclined to take a ride from a tipsy friend than walk uphill toward their homes.

Many colleges across the country, like Marist and Purdue, put their students’ safety first with a dependable, inexpensive ride home: a ‘drunk bus.’ For the same price of a regular TCAT ride, inebriated students would be guaranteed a safe ride back up the hill to campus. Due to the distance of Ithaca College’s campus from most watering holes, walking is usually not an option, especially in the wintertime.

Because Ithaca College doesn’t have a medical amnesty policy, one reason for the lack of a drunk bus would have to be the College’s involvement in their students drunk behavior. Technically, if a student is reported intoxicated on campus, and are being dropped off on the campus, officials must intervene. Public Safety would be swamped with reports from drunk kids on the drunk bus, and wouldn’t be able to attend to other calls of emergencies. So rather than adopt a medical amnesty policy and provide their students with a weekend night bus, Ithaca College would rather save time and money and put their students in potentially more precarious situations.

I have to say I feel a bit guilty about the way I behaved at the Bob Iger Q & A. My behavior was inappropriate and in no way becoming of a Park student. In case you don’t remember, I was the one sitting towards the back drinking a cup of coffee with nothing to say. I want to apologize for failing to critically engage a representative of a corporation that stands for everything I’ve been taught to challenge within the media. We missed a unique opportunity for some very constructive intellectual conflict, and I fear it will be years of complaining about “big media” with people who already agree with us before us anti-establishment Park students get another opportunity like the Iger Q & A to actually engage in a debate with such a powerful industry leader.

The Bob Iger Q & A has to be the first time I’ve heard the Disney corporation discussed in a positive light inside the Park building. In my Mass Media course freshman year, Disney was held up as the prime example of cultural imperialism. The only Disney character I’ve ever seen on screen in the Park auditorium was featured in an animation released by fair use advocates, Negativland. The piece featured illegal clips of the Little Mermaid over a frightening phone call from a raging Disney lawyer. In recent weeks, I’ve discussed media bias at Disney in reference to a made-for-TV movie about 9/11 released by ABC that has widely been criticized as inaccurately putting the blame for 9/11 on the Clinton Administration. All of this was lost on us somehow when Mr. Iger walked in to the Park Auditorium.

I’ve heard some students argue that would Mr. Iger can’t be held responsible for Disney’s past behavior, because he’s only been CEO for a year, however, Mr. Iger has been part of Disney’s senior management team since 1996. From 2000 up to his appointment as CEO in 2005, Iger was the No. 2 man at Disney, serving as President and Chief Operating Officer. It would be a major blow to corporate responsibility to give senior management a free ride and assume that only CEO’s are responsible for their corporation’s behavior.

It’s also important for us to question whether Iger plans to behave differently than his predecessor now that he is CEO. Former directors Stanley Gold and Roy E. Disney who led the shareholder campaign that got Iger’s predecessor Michael Eisner removed have criticized Eisner’s intimate role in Iger’s selction. Iger was handpicked by Eisner to be his sucessor, and Gold and Disney filed a lawsuit intended to prevent Iger from taking his place. Gold and Disney questioned the legitimacy of his selection and claimed that only one external candidate was interviewed and that Eisner was allowed to be present at the interview. Obviously their campaign was unsuccesful, but it raises serious concerns that Iger mightwill prove to be no different than Eisner.

I am glad that Mr. Iger was invited to speak, and I think we should all be grateful for his generous donation. Any solutions to problems within the media industry will have to be found through negotiation between conflicting interests, and this was a perfect opportunity to move forward in that process. In my opinion, we failed to seize that opportunity; I heard one critical question throughout the entire Q & A, and it was not even media-related. Those of us who are concerned about Disney’s stance on intellectual freedom and media concentration, deregulation, and bias needed to confront him respectfully and the impression I got from Iger’s visit was that we failed to make a substantial statement about how we feel. My fear is that by failing to critically engage Mr. Iger, we allowed his visit to send an unintended message to students: in the face of money and power, be polite and check your convictions at the door.

“Our research subdivision safely and successfully carried out an underground nuclear test on Oct. 9. This nuclear test will go down in history as an event that brought happiness to our military and people. This nuclear test is an investment in the maintenance of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the surrounding region. The test was carried out 100 percent on the basis of indigenous wisdom and technology.”

I feel accused when looking at campus bulletin boards
The bulletin boards in the many residence halls on campus are filled with different fliers, from safety tips from the local RAs to advertisements for a variety of campus activities. However, each time I look at one of these random boards, I do not feel inclined to go join in on the poker night fun or store my microwave away beneath my bed. Instead, I feel accused of a serious crime I haven’t committed and will never commit.

A specific paper stands out from the rest. Emblazoned in bold black font on a pure white background are the words “men” and “rape”. .”If you take a step closer you can see the main part of the message, “can stop”, squeezed between the big bold words in a smaller black circle. The effect is simply to catch your attention with the accusation “men rape.”

Men Ending Rape, the organization responsible for the fliers, was co-founded by Keith Edwards, a speaker with a background in education. Edwards’ program “She Fears You” is a presentation delivered to college and university students across the country about rape and sexual abuse. The event came to IC Monday, Sept. 11.

The idea is a good one; educating college students, especially males, about sexual assault is a noble pursuit. However, the layout of the poster doesn’t reflect the organizations stated goal. The first sentence on the organization’s website, menendingrape.org, reads: “The fact that men rape is obvious, but the fact that men can end rape is often an after thought (sic).” Ironically,what the website decries is directly reflected by their poster, i.e. quick glance reading “men rape,” secondary inspection “men can stop rape.”

“If the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon’s clock back 20 years.”Israeli Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz

“And then, most disgraceful of all, we leave the
Lebanese to their fate like a diseased people and spend our time evacuating our
precious foreigners while tut-tutting about Israel’s ‘disproportionate’ response to the capture of its
soldiers by Hezbollah.”Robert Fisk, The Independent, July 19th, 2006

“What fruit, other than one of pain, frustration, financial ruin and fanaticism, can stem from this rubble?”Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora

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Copyright 2004-2005 Buzzsaw Haircut.

Published with support from the Center for American Progress/Campus Progress.